By Bob Allen
John David Hopper, president of the European-based International Baptist Theological Seminary when the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign Mission Board suddenly defunded the school in 1992, died Jan. 10 at age 80.
Despite having promised four years before to gradually phase out funding for the school, trustees of what today is called the International Mission Board removed $365,000 — about 40 percent of the seminary’s annual funding — from the 1992 budget.
The newly formed Cooperative Baptist Fellowship responded by offering to cover the salaries of missionaries who could no longer in good conscience stay affiliated with the Foreign Mission Board.
Hopper and his wife, Jo Ann, accepted the offer. They, along with SBC missionaries T and Kathie Thomas in Romania, were introduced at the CBF 1992 General Assembly as the first four “missioners,” as the Fellowship’s field personnel were known at the time.
Jim Smith, one of the early CBF missionaries and now director of field ministries for the Decatur, Ga.,-based Fellowship, remembered Hopper as “a wonderfully kind and deeply spiritual person who was blessed with exceptional intellect.”
“He kept his Christian principles during many trials but refused to slip into bitterness,” Smith posted on Facebook. “He lived a good life.”
Fluent in eight languages, Hopper earned the bachelor of divinity degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and master of theology and doctor of philosophy degrees in church history from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his wife were appointed as missionaries in 1965.
Hopper taught practical theology at the international seminary for four years and then taught and did research at a Baptist seminary in Yugoslavia for four years before being named the mission board’s fraternal representative for Eastern Europe in 1976.
In 1987 he became president the international seminary, then based in Rüschlikon, Switzerland. The school was formed in 1949 to help rebuild Baptist unity in Europe following World War II. Struggling since the 1970s due to declining exchange rates for the U.S. dollar, Rüschlikon had had seven presidents in the previous 10 years. There was some opposition to Hopper’s election from those who wanted the job to go to a European.
In 1988 the FMB agreed to transfer ownership of the seminary to European Baptists and “a gradual subsidy reduction” for as long as 15 years beginning in 1992. At the FMB trustee meeting Oct. 9, 1991, however, trustees voted 35-28 to withdraw $365,000 of funds in the 1992 budget earmarked for Rüschlikon.
Supporters of the defunding cited news that Glenn Hinson, a longtime Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor often accused of “liberalism” in the battle of what is now commonly called the SBC “conservative resurgence,” was teaching there during a four-month sabbatical.
After the defunding, mission board officials told Hopper that speaking about Rüschlikon in U.S. churches violated the organization’s fund-raising policy. Rather than letting the seminary die, the Hoppers resigned after 27 years as Southern Baptist missionaries in April 1992. Hopper continued as president of Rüschlikon until he retired for health reasons in 1997.
Adapting to changing educational needs for European Baptists after the end of the Cold War the International Baptist Theological Seminary relocated to Eastern Europe in 1997. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship mobilized more than 1,000 volunteers to travel to the Czech Republic and help remodel buildings in preparation for the opening of the new campus in Prague, Czech Republic.
In 2014 the school relocated again to Amsterdam, with a new focus on doctoral studies instead of master-degree training now being offered in national seminaries opening up across the continent in recent years.
After retirement Hopper lived in San Antonio with his wife of 56 years, who survives. He also leaves behind three sons, their spouses and seven grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at his home church, Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas.
Previous stories:
Scottish Baptist to lead relocated seminary
EBF leaders endorse seminary move
EBF leaders endorse seminary move